When Marvel hired writer Jeff Loveness (rick and morty, miracle workers) to write the third Ant-Man movie in March 2020 – what a timing! – Kevin Feige and company only had a few stipulations: the movie had to be a big Quantum Realm adventure movie, and maybe Kang the Conqueror was the villain. Loveness ran with it… and ran with it and ran with it, all the way past the end credits of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania for a show writing 2025’s Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Kang (played by Jonathan Majors) wasn’t simply a throwaway referential revelation in Loki season 1, or a villain for Scott Lang to defend himself against. This was Marvel’s new Big Bad, the Thanos of the “Multiverse Saga”, to be led by Loveness in several future chapters.
But what is Kang’s story really? about when it comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe? A great villain not only terrifies the heroes, but interrogates the world around him. And in the MCU, there’s even more weight on a guy like Kang’s shoulders – he can’t just carry one movie, he has to sustain an entire one. sagastories are worth telling. To give him that weight going into quantity, Loveness regarded Kang’s arc as that of a true conqueror, someone who “doesn’t accept civilization or the world or the life he has”. History is full of them. The thought experiment led him to frame the villain’s role in the MCU as a high stakes issue: “Are you willing to accept the broken world that is yours and you have a life, or are you brave enough to burn it down to the ground?” do something better?”
For Loveness, it was the opposite energy of what Thanos brought to the table and exactly what the MCU needed.
“Thanos comes in like a hammer, he’s single-minded, he’s on a mission – he’s pretty straightforward,” says Loveness. “I really wanted to introduce Kang the Conqueror towards the end of his story. There’s a story with this guy. I love The Lord of the Rings or Star Wars because they put you in a mythology that is much older than where the story is starting. They name Morgoth, but they’re fighting Morgoth’s trainee for the entire trilogy! Darth Vader- I think he has a history with this old man? Is so good. And so I thought it would be awesome to meet Kang the Conqueror after his big defeat.”
Image: Marvel Studios
Loveness says a particular line in quantity gets to the heart of the character: “When you can see time the way I can, you can’t close your eyes.” He thinks of Kang as someone burdened with his crusade and, above all, “a very non-linear guy”. The idea of jumping through time and space brought Loveness and the Marvel team to a moment of defeat, rather than the beginning of a riot, where the writer could relate Kang to someone like Napoleon Bonaparte.
“I think more of his defeat at Waterloo, his exile or his failure in Russia than of his military campaigns in Italy. I think about what happens in the realm of defeat, and how can you humanize this character and give him a revenge arc.” Unlike Thanos, Kang doesn’t want to balance the universe – he wants to flatten it to make way for something completely known.
“He’s the Great Gatsby of the multiverse,” says Loveness with a laugh, “and I’ll leave that there.”
Loveness says the original script for quantity it had even more backstory for Kang, but like all movies that find their shape over the course of development, certain beats and reveals were sanded out. Much of it will find its way to Avengers: The Kang Dynastybut quantity leaves fans with the tease of the many Kangs seen in a post-credits scene – and what they mean for the new film’s Kang.
“I just love the setting of: He’s not a liar,” points out Loveness. “If you go back and watch the movie and listen to what he’s saying, we’re going to be in a lot of trouble because he was the only thing that could stop these guys.”
That leaves the Avengers with a huge problem for the future, in terms of all the Kangs they have to face. Loveness couldn’t be more excited.
“I wish Hawkeye the best of luck. I’m sure Daredevil and Moon Knight will be excellent against these guys.”